Custom Instagram Analytics Reports with Metricool

Tracking Instagram performance is a key part to understanding how your content is landing with your audience. While Instagram Insights offers some useful metrics, it often doesn’t cover everything you need as your strategy evolves. That’s where tools like Metricool come in, offering more detailed analytics and streamlined reporting.

Metricool gives you an all-in-one platform to track your Instagram metrics, analyze content performance, and even monitor competitors. It makes Instagram reporting easier and helps you make smarter, data-backed decisions. Here’s how Metricool can enhance your Instagram reporting.

How to Access Instagram Analytics for Reporting

Understanding your Instagram performance starts with analytics, and Instagram’s native tools provide a baseline for this. However, as your strategy evolves, so do your reporting needs. That’s where a tool like Metricool comes in, filling in the gaps and delivering a complete picture of your account’s performance.

1. Instagram Insights

Instagram Insights is a native tool that offers a free, user-friendly way to track basic performance metrics on your business or creator account. You can access it directly within the Instagram app, and it’s great for quick checks or beginners looking to get a foundational understanding of how their account is doing.

Instagram Insights provides a variety of metrics to track:

• Overview Metrics: Get a high-level look at your account’s health with data on views, interactions (likes, comments, saves, and shares), and follower growth.
• Content Performance: See how your posts, Stories, Reels, and live videos are performing with metrics like views, accounts reached, and engagement rates.
• Audience Demographics: Insights into where your followers are located, their age ranges, and gender breakdowns can help you tailor your content to suit your audience’s preferences.
• Timeframe Flexibility: You can view data from the last 7, 30, or up to 90 days, making it easier to analyze trends and evaluate recent campaigns.

Simply tap on the “Insights” option in your profile to get an overview of your account’s performance. For individual posts, you can tap “View Insights” below each post, and for Stories or live videos, swipe up to see detailed metrics.

Strengths

• It’s easy to use and integrated directly within Instagram, so there’s no need to switch between platforms.
• Perfect for those just starting or anyone needing high-level insights quickly.

Limitations

• It only offers data for the past 90 days, so you can’t dive into long-term trends.
• There’s no integration with other platforms, and it lacks more advanced metrics, such as competitor analysis or detailed Reels performance.

2. Meta Business Suite Insights

For a broader view of your social media performance, Meta Business Suite Insights offers a more integrated approach. This tool is ideal for businesses that manage both Facebook and Instagram accounts, allowing you to analyze content performance across multiple platforms.

• Cross-Platform Analytics: Get a unified view of how your content performs across Instagram, Facebook, and even your ad accounts.
• Performance Overview: Track the overall performance of your business across all Meta platforms.
• Ad Performance: Analyze key metrics for Facebook and Instagram ads, such as reach, engagement, and ROI, so you can optimize your ad strategy.
• Audience Analysis: Explore the demographics and interests of your audience to improve content planning and target your future campaigns effectively.
• Benchmarking Tools: Compare your performance against similar businesses, helping you pinpoint areas for improvement.

Benefits of Using Meta Business Suite Insights

• Holistic View: Ideal for businesses that need to manage both Instagram and Facebook accounts from one platform.
• Ad Optimization: You get detailed insights into your ad campaigns, helping refine targeting and budget allocation.
• Audience Insights: Understanding your audience’s demographics and interests allows you to craft content that resonates more effectively.

Limitations

• It can be overwhelming for smaller businesses or individual creators focused only on Instagram.
• It doesn’t offer custom branding for reports or provide the depth of Reels-specific metrics that you might need for video optimization.

3. Metricool Custom Reporting

Metricool takes Instagram reporting to the next level by offering advanced features that allow for detailed performance analysis and easy integration with multiple social media platforms. Its customizable reporting system makes it easy to create professional, in-depth reports that you can tailor to your needs.

Key Features and Metrics

• Cross-Platform Comparison: Metricool lets you compare Instagram metrics alongside other platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn, which is essential for marketers managing multi-channel strategies.
• In-Depth Reels Analytics: Track key Reels-specific metrics, such as completion rates, average watch time, and engagement. These insights can help you optimize your video content for better performance.
• Competitor Tracking: Keep an eye on your competitors by monitoring their performance. You can identify their strengths and weaknesses, which can inform your own strategy and give you a competitive edge.
• Customizable Reports: Metricool allows you to choose reporting periods that align with your campaigns. You can also add your own branding, including logos and specific visualizations, making it perfect for sharing with clients or stakeholders.

How to Create an Instagram Report with Metricool

Creating a professional Instagram report with Metricool is straightforward and effective, giving you a clear view of your account’s performance. Here’s how you can create a customized report that suits your needs:

1. Set Up Your Account: Sign up for Metricool and connect your Instagram account. This allows the platform to access your data and generate insights based on your activity.
2. Access the Reports Tab: Log in to Metricool and go to the Analytics dashboard. Find the Reports section in the navigation menu to begin creating and managing your reports.
3. Customize Your Report: Select the reporting period (week, month, or custom range) to track trends and campaign performance. You can include data from multiple social networks, like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or LinkedIn. Add custom branding, such as your logo and brand colors, to give the report a professional touch.
4. Download Your Report: Once your report is ready, download it in PDF or PPT format. You can also schedule your reports to automatically send to key stakeholders and your team at regular intervals (such as monthly).

With these steps, you can quickly create an Instagram report with Metricool that not only provides valuable insights but also aligns with your brand’s look and feel. Whether you’re tracking performance internally or presenting results to clients, Metricool’s user-friendly tools make reporting simple and efficient.

What’s Included in a Metricool Instagram Analytics Report?

Metricool’s Instagram analytics reports are designed to go beyond surface-level data, offering a comprehensive breakdown of your account’s performance. These reports don’t just highlight numbers—they transform metrics into meaningful insights that can inform and refine your social media strategy. Below, we explore the key sections of a Metricool report and provide actionable tips, advanced strategies, and examples to help you maximize their value.

1. Community Growth

Community growth is the foundation of any successful Instagram strategy. Understanding how your audience evolves over time enables you to craft content that resonates and fosters engagement. Metricool provides a comprehensive view of your audience’s growth patterns, offering clarity on how your efforts translate into follower gains.

• Follower Growth: The report tracks both the total number of new followers gained during a specific period and the percentage change compared to previous periods. It also highlights unusual spikes or drops, helping you identify the campaigns or content responsible for these changes.
• Posts and Reels Published: Consistency in content publishing is key to staying relevant. Metricool tracks the volume and frequency of posts and Reels, giving you a clear picture of how consistent efforts align with audience growth.
• Demographics: Audience demographics, such as gender, age, and location, are broken down to help you understand your primary audience segments. This insight allows you to tailor content to the preferences of your most engaged followers.

2. Profile Insights

Your Instagram profile acts as your digital storefront—it’s the first impression potential followers or customers get of your brand. Metricool’s reports provide detailed metrics that help you understand how effectively your profile attracts and retains visitors.

• Profile Views: These indicate how many users visited your profile, offering a clear measure of how effectively your content encourages users to explore your page.
• Website Clicks: This metric tracks how often users click on your bio link, showing how well you’re driving traffic to external destinations like your website, product pages, or promotional content.

Tools like Metricool’s SmartLinks allow you to create trackable, multi-destination links that help you measure and optimize where users are navigating.

3. Interactions

Engagement is the lifeblood of Instagram success. Metricool’s interaction metrics provide a detailed look at how your audience connects with your content, from likes and comments to shares and engagement rates.

These metrics are particularly valuable as they provide a percentage-based view of how many people actively engage with your posts relative to your total audience. This makes it easier to spot trends and determine which content is resonating most effectively.

• Likes, Comments, and Shares: Granular engagement data for posts, Stories, and Reels.
• Engagement Rates: Helps you measure the percentage of your audience interacting with your content.

4. Reels Performance

Reels are an increasingly important tool for organic growth on Instagram, and Metricool’s reports delve into the specifics of Reel performance. 

• Completion Rates: The percentage of viewers who watch your Reel in its entirety.
• Average Watch Time: Indicates how engaging your content is.
• Shares and Comments: Metrics that reveal how viral your content is.

If a Reel isn’t performing as well as expected, consider tweaking the first few seconds to make the content more captivating. The use of trending audio or shorter, punchier videos can also help increase reach and engagement. Posting during peak activity times identified by Metricool can further boost visibility.

5. Post and Hashtag Rankings

Metricool’s analytics identify the posts and hashtags driving the most engagement. Top-performing posts are ranked based on metrics like likes, comments, and overall engagement rates. This allows you to pinpoint exactly what content resonates most with your audience.

• Top-Performing Posts: Displays posts with the highest likes, comments, and engagement rates. Use this data to replicate or repurpose successful content.
• Hashtag Performance: Data on the reach, engagement, and success of hashtags used in posts.

Hashtag performance metrics reveal which tags contributed most to a post’s reach and engagement. By regularly updating your hashtag strategy and experimenting with a mix of popular and niche-specific hashtags, you can maximize visibility.

6. Stories Insights

Instagram Stories offer a dynamic way to connect with followers, and Metricool provides detailed insights into their performance. 

• Story Views: Total users who viewed each Story.
• Engagement Rates: Tracks taps forward, taps back, and exits.

A high number of exits might indicate that your Stories are too lengthy or not engaging enough. Shorter, visually dynamic content often performs better. Adding interactive elements like polls or quizzes can also encourage engagement and keep viewers engaged longer.

7. Competitor Analysis

Metricool’s competitor analysis feature allows you to benchmark your performance against others in your industry, providing valuable insights into areas where you can improve or excel. By comparing key metrics, you can spot both opportunities and gaps in your strategy.

• Performance Benchmarks: Compare followers, likes, comments, and engagement rates with competitors.
• Gap Identification: Pinpoint areas where competitors excel and develop counter-strategies.

Benefits of Metricool Custom Reports

Metricool’s custom reporting feature for Instagram analytics offers a range of benefits that can transform your social media management and reporting workflows:

Save Time and Boost Efficiency

With Metricool, the process of collecting data and generating reports is automated, saving you valuable time and effort. You no longer have to manually extract data from Instagram, organize it in spreadsheets, or create presentations. Instead, you can generate comprehensive reports with just a few clicks, giving you more time to focus on analyzing the data and refining your strategies.

In-Depth Insights

Metricool’s custom reports provide a detailed breakdown of your Instagram performance, covering:

• Community growth and follower demographics
• Profile metrics (views, web clicks, impressions, reach)
• Post performance (likes, comments, shares, saves)
• Stories and Reels analytics
• Engagement rates and click-through rates
• Competitor analysis

This extensive data provides a well-rounded view of how your Instagram strategy is performing.

Customization and Flexibility

Metricool allows you to tailor your reports to fit your specific goals and needs. You can:

• Choose the metrics that matter most to you
• Select custom date ranges for deeper analysis
• Opt for different visual formats (graphs, tables, charts)
• Include your brand logo and customize the report’s design

This level of flexibility ensures your reports are perfectly aligned with your brand and highlight the key insights for your stakeholders.

Easy Sharing and Presentation

Reports can be easily exported in PDF or PowerPoint formats, making it simple to share with clients, team members, or other stakeholders. The reports are visually appealing and professionally formatted, enhancing your ability to communicate Instagram performance clearly and effectively.

Automated Scheduling

Metricool allows you to automate report generation and scheduling, ensuring you always have up-to-date data at your fingertips. This feature is especially useful for agencies managing multiple clients or businesses that require regular reports without the hassle of manual updates.

Competitor Insights

Custom reports can include competitor analysis, helping you benchmark your performance against others in your industry. This comparative data can highlight areas for improvement and provide valuable insights for refining your strategy.

Cross-Platform Integration

For businesses managing multiple social media platforms, Metricool’s custom reports can integrate data from various sources, offering a comprehensive view of your overall social media performance.

Gretchen Oestreicher , 01 January 2025